Weaver news

Ringing weekend at the Nature College, 18-19 March 2017

A team of ringers and helpers (Graeme and Jacky Furno, Loutjie and Aneldi Steenberg, Dieter Oschadleus) visited the Nature College to demonstrate bird ringing to the current students, and to continue training Jana Malherbe as a ringer.

We arrived on Friday, and Jacky caught a Pale Chanting Goshawk on a bal-chatri. Mist-nets were up on Saturday morning at the dam wall, but it became too windy so we moved our nets around the farm house for the rest of Saturday and also Sunday morning.

The top ringed species were Cape Sparrow, Southern Masked Weaver, and (surprisingly!) White-backed Mousebird. There were 13 recaptures, mostly of birds ringed a month previously by Vincent Ward. One Cape Weaver, however, had been ringed by Philip Coetzee 8 years 9 months previously (ring BE04041). One of the specials was Fairy Flycatcher, weighing in at a mere 5-6g.

Thanks very much to Jana and Francois Malherbe for hosting us so well!